1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a SATA (Serial AT Attachment) interface connector and, more particularly, to such a SATA interface connector, which keeps the conductors of the SATA interface cable positively connected to the conductors in the connector body without solder.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional bus line connector for use in computer. This design of bus line connector requires much installation space because the bus line 11 is comprised of more than seventy signal lines arranged in parallel. Therefore, various Serial ATA interface connectors are developed. Serial ATA is the next generation storage interface standard for personal computer designed to replace the Ultra ATA parallel interconnect cable (80 conductors) with a much smaller, more flexible serial design. FIGS. 2A and 2B show a Serial ATA interface connector according the prior art. According to this design, the Serial ATA interface connector comprises a connector body 13, a plurality of terminals 14 mounted in the connector body 13, a Serial ATA interface cable 15 having conductors 151 respectively soldered to the terminals 14, and an electrically insulative outer shell 16 molded on a part of the connector body 13 and a part of the Serial ATA interface cable 15. This design of Serial ATA interface connector has drawbacks as follows:
1. It consumes much time to solder the conductors 151 to the terminals 14 by labor. When soldering the conductors 151 to the terminals 14, toxic waste gas is produced.
2. The conductors 151 are thin wire conductors and the two conductors on the middle are commonly soldered to a common terminal, improper soldering affects the electric properties of the connector.
3. When molding the electrically insulative outer shell 16, the molding pressure may distort the conductors 151, resulting in a short circuit.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a Serial ATA interface connector that eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide a Serial ATA interface connector, which eliminates the procedure of soldering to connect the conductors to the terminals. It is another object of the present invention to provide a Serial ATA interface connector, which keeps the terminals and the conductors in position, preventing interference. To achieve these and other objects and according to one aspect of the present invention, the Serial ATA interface connector comprises a connector body holding a set of terminals, each terminal having a vertically extended conductor holder at the rear end outside the conductor holder, the conductor holder having a Y-shaped retaining notch, a Serial ATA interface cable having conductors respectively fastened to the Y-shaped retaining notches of the conductors, a bottom cover shell and a top cover shell fastened together to hold down the connector body and the outer insulative layer of the Serial ATA interface cable, the top and bottom covers having positioning holes for the positioning of the conductor holders of the terminals. According to another aspect of the present invention, the terminals have two different lengths alternatively arranged in parallel. According to another aspect of the present invention, the top cover shell has hook holes and bottom pins respectively fastened to respective upright hooks and pin holes in the bottom cover shell to hold down the connector body and the Serial ATA interface cable.